Electronic commerce (E-commerce) as an industry has grown significantly as many consumers have begun to utilize the internet as their preferred source of making commercial purchases due to the ease of locating and comparing items and/or retailers online. Furthermore, the convenience of having orders delivered directly to their home or place of business, especially when expediently delivered, adds to the attractiveness of E-commerce. Currently, the majority of deliveries are conducted manually by driving delivery vehicles and delivering packages door-to-door in person. However, the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has great potential as an expedient and energy-efficient vehicle for transporting products ordered by an end consumer via an electronic marketplace and delivered from a fulfillment center (FC) to the location of the end consumer. For example, upon receiving an order for a product, a UAV may be loaded with the product as cargo and then may depart from the FC to perform the delivery before returning to the FC.
FCs often house proprietary fulfillment technology from which a competitive advantage is derived and which competitors may wish to examine. For example, a particular retailer's fulfillment systems may be developed and continuously refined over many years through significant investment allowing them to fulfill orders with minimal order processing cost.